Consider my birthday July 21st - the day my creator brought yours truly, Harlowe Optera, to (Second) life! Not sure what was going through her head when she picked my starter skin, body, hair, clothes, etc... But I was born looking quite tragic with my short, blonde, soccer-mom hair, and uptight business-woman 2-piece suit. Customizing my entire appearance was a real task. Luckily, I got a friend request from Melah Carter, a colleague of Prof. Lax. Melah was fantastic. She brought me down to the New Haven Center, where she is the manager. I had no idea there were places like these made specifically for newbies like myself. She really helped me get started when I was completely lost. For starters she completely made me over. Now I look like this:

Oh man...much better. Can finally breathe in a basic T and jeans. And I definitely needed that tan :)

And she hooked me up with a sweet little room to live in:

Here's what the outside looks like:

New Haven Center has all kinds of classes for us newbies - I'm especially looking forward to learning how to score some freebies in the SL world! Can't wait to explore my new surroundings. I'll be writing here often to document my journey through Second Life, and all the things I discover along the way as a newbie! One of my first priorities: visiting some amazing places - my creator has never visited Paris... I'm beating her to it!